2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac

The 2018 Gongfarmer's Almanac has been released!
   
This is a free zine that various DCC players put together. Marc Bruner and Shyloh Wideman took the lead as organizers this year, soliciting articles, matching authors with editors and artists, and arranging to have the whole thing laid out, printed up, and given away free at Gen Con. The original print run is funded by donations, and everyone involved donates their time.
     
If you didn't get physical copies of the zine at Gen Con, you can get it in print or pdf on Lulu. The pdfs are completely free. The physical copy is sold at-cost, just what it costs Lulu to print it and ship it.
   

cover art by Doug Kovacs

   
You can get the combined print edition here.
   
The pdf editions are available by following the links below:
volume 1
volume 2
volume 3
volume 4
volume 5
volume 6
volume 7
   
The pdf editions are also currently publicly available on Google Drive here.
   
I had several articles in this year's Gongfarmer's Almanac. Since the spirit of the entire enterprise is about publicly sharing gaming ideas, (and since I just posted the links to access the work in its entirety), I'm also going to re-post my articles from the Almanac here on my blog. You can expect to see them over the coming days. If you like what you see, consider downloading or buying the whole thing, so you can see the other contributor's ideas as well.

Mechanics I Want to Use - DCC Movement Rates through a Dwarven City Megadungeon

I have a friend who's brainstorming a dwarven undercity campaign, using procedural generation to fill in a minihexmap as the characters explore a multi-level ruined-city megadungeon. These are my thoughts on the mechanics of moving around the megadungeon. The point of writing this is to try to think through some of the mechanical structure so that he can worry about the content. I'm using DCC as my base here, but my friend could relatively easily convert these ideas to work in B/X or any other system.
 
 
   
Humans and elves in DCC have a base movement speed of 30. Dwarves and halflings have a speed of 20. Characters with the Wild Child birth augur can have their speed altered by plus-or-minus 5, 10, or 15 depending on their starting Luck score. Wearing heavy armor can slow characters down. Wearing scale, chain, or banded mail imposes a movement penalty of -5, and wearing half or full plate imposes -10. So a DCC adventuring party without animals is usually going to have a group speed of 20 or 30.
 
Dogs move 40. Donkeys and mules have speed 30, ponies have speed 40, and both horses and warhorses have speed 60.
 
I propose to treat a character's speed as their movement points. Navigating the dwarven undercity requires spending movement points to explore and travel between hexes. The slowest character in the party determines how far the party can travel without anyone needing to forced march. The fastest characters in the party can take advantage of their speed to scout ahead and report back.
 
Hexes are approximately a mile across.
 
Although travel times are given too, the need for rest is based on using movement points, rather than the passage of time. Characters need to stop for the night and rest once they get to 0 movement points. Continuing to travel beyond that requires forced marching, which entails some element of risk. You could require that the characters have to stop to briefly rest around the time they use half their movement points, but unless you plan to have something happen during that rest, or just really want to narrate it for realism's sake, there's no reason to. (Alternatively, ignore the movement points, and use the travel times to establish the adventuring day. Travel up to 8 hours is as normal, going longer carries the risks of forced marching. Characters with low movement rates due to their species or encumbrance may begin forced marching after only 6 hours.)
 
Entering a hex is "free," but passing through it to come back out costs 0, 2.5, 5, or 10 movement points, depending on the terrain and on whether or the characters are exploring or crossing through a space they've already explored.
 
Terrain types
There are at least three common types of hexes in the dwarven undercity - caverns, passages, and mazes. There may be other common types that will need to be detailed later. There may also be special or unique hexes that would never show up on a general list. (Cavegirl's Game Stuff's The Gardens of Ynn might be a useful tool for thinking about what these uncommon hexes might be like.)
 
Cavern hexes
Movement point cost: Caverns cost 2.5 to explore initially, 0 to cross after exploration. Some caverns contain difficult terrain (such as weed-like or forest-like stalagmites) and cost 5 to explore, 2.5 to cross after exploration. Difficult caverns are relatively rare.
   
Time cost: Caverns take an hour to explore, half an hour to cross after exploration. Difficult caverns take 2 hours to explore, 1 hour to cross.
 
Cavern hexes are mostly filled with giant, wide-open caverns. They make ideal building sites and contain 1d6 or 1d8 significant structures. They contain 1d4 exits in addition to the entrance the characters used. Unlike in passages and mazes, the structures are not tied to particular exits and should all be considered central.
 
It is impossible to get lost in a cavern hex.
 
Passage hexes
Movement point cost: Passages cost 5 to explore, 2.5 to cross. Some passages are very easy to navigate. They have wider corridors, simpler layouts, and/or better signage. These cost 2.5 to explore and 0 to cross. Some passages are more difficult to navigate. These are narrower, more winding, contain stairs or other changes of elevation, etc. These cost 10 to explore, 5 to cross. Both easy and difficult passages are relatively rare.
 
Time cost: Most passages take 2 hours to explore, 1 hour to cross. Easy passages take only an hour to explore, half an hour to cross. Difficult passages take 4 hours to explore, 2 hours to cross.
 
Passage hexes are mostly filled with halls and corridors used to facilitate navigation between structures. Passage hexes contain 1d4 significant structures and 1d4 exits in addition to the entrance the characters used. Most structures are associated with a particular exit, and either can or must be accessed to use that exit. Occasionally there are central structures that can be accessed freely by anyone passing through the hex. Even the first time they explore the hex, players can always choose which exit they use to leave the passages.
 
It is almost impossible to get lost in a passage hex. Difficult passages have narrow walls, long winding stretches, sharp turns, weird angles, and other features that slow down movement, but, they do not present a navigational hazard. Like caverns, they can be considered fully explored after a single crossing, and unlike mazes, they carry almost no risk of losing one's way (unless the party fumbles their exploration.)
 
Maze hexes
Movement point cost: Mazes cost 5 to explore, 2.5 to cross. Some mazes are especially difficult to navigate. These cost 10 to explore, 5 to cross. Because of the risk of getting lost, and the need to fully map a maze before it can be considered explored, difficult mazes are a nightmare for adventuring parties. Difficult mazes are relatively rare.
 
Time cost: Mazes take 2 hours to explore, 1 hour to cross. Difficult mazes take 4 hours to explore, 2 hours to cross.
 
Maze hexes are filled with halls and corridors laid out to confuse and misdirect the traveler. Maze hexes contain 1d8-4 significant structures and 1d4 exits in addition to the entrance the characters used. Structures in a maze are always associated with an exit. If there are more structures than visible exits (including the characters' original entrance), then the extra structures contain secret exits. The only way to find a central structure in a maze (at least initially) is to get lost.
 
Exploring mazes: Mazes take much longer to explore than normal passage hexes. They are designed to thwart navigation and make stymie mapmakers. Fully exploring a maze requires multiple passes through the structure. The characters must leave a maze by each of its exits in order to fully map the maze. Since all maze hexes contain an original entrance and at least one exit, it always takes at least two trips through the maze to fully map it. Getting lost in the maze does not count toward meeting the exploration requirements. (I know, I know, in real life, getting lost in a place a few times really does eventually make it easier to find your way around. Either dwarven mazes are too confusing for that to work, or if the ref is feeling generous, getting lost means that you roll +1d the next time you try to explore it.)
 
Until a maze is fully mapped the characters can either choose to travel a known route or leave via a random exit. Traveling a known route doesn't let you go any faster, count toward your exploration requirements, or run any less risk of getting lost, but it does let you pick which exit you use to leave the hex. Leaving via a random exit maps one route, putting you one trip closer to mastering the maze, and requires rolling 1d5, 1d4, 1d3, or 1d2 to determine which exit (including the original entrance) you use to leave the hex. For obvious reasons, when there's only one unmapped route left, you don't have to roll the dice, you just go the only way you haven't gone before. Once a maze is fully mapped, you can pretty much treat it like passages.
 
Getting lost in a maze: Mazes are designed to make you lost, so this is a fairly regular occurrence. Getting lost doesn't count toward your mapping totals. Typically, getting lost either means ending up back in the hex you started from before you entered the maze. Less commonly, you might end up stuck in the maze, or if you're lucky, you might find yourself outside a random exit. The other thing that might happen, if you're lucky, is you might discover a lost wonder of the dwarven underworld. (This can happen in passages too, but since getting lost there is rarer, so is finding forgotten wonders.) Lost wonders are cool, long-forgotten structures and treasures that you can only find by getting lost. There are two ways to handle this. One way would be to have a special encounter table for lost characters, and to include finding a lost wonder as a possible encounter. The other way would be to use a Luck check to resolve what happens when you get lost, and make finding a lost wonder the best possible result of the Luck check.
 
Exploring the dwarven underworld: When the characters traverse a hex from their entrance to one of the exits, this generally counts as exploring the hex. (It's possible to fumble this in a passage, and mazes of course require multiple trips through to fully explore.) After they've explored the hex, characters can simply cross it thereafter.
 
The lead character in the party's marching order makes the exploration check. In passages and mazes, this is the roll that determines if you get lost or not. Other consequences TBD. If a character scouted ahead and reported back, and that character then leads the party through the hex, that hex can be considered already-explored. (Something like this also applies for return trips to the undercity bringing along new characters.) Probably rolling the exploration check involves rolling d10 if you're untrained, d20 if you're trained due to your occupation or class. (Since it's a dwarven undercity, I would imagine that all dwarves are considered trained.)
 
I'm not sure if you should have to roll an exploration check if you're just crossing the hex. If you do, you should either get to make the roll using larger dice, or have a friendlier table to roll on. I guess it depends on whether the exploration check is just to see if you get lost, or if it also functions as the wandering monster check. That might be good, because the person you want to help you avoid getting lost isn't necessarily the person you want in front if you need to sneak past a sleeping monster, or negotiate with a dwarven guard patrol, or lead the charge in a fight. (It could be the same person, but it's not guaranteed.) The exploration check should be a separate roll however, from any rolls that are used to procedurally generate the contents of the hex. (Your exploration roll shouldn't determine if the next hex you move into is a cavern or a maze, for example.)
 
Structures
Depending on the hex type, a hex may contain one or more significant structures. (Or it could be empty, although I guess the numbers I given so far make it impossible for anything but mazes to be structure-free. Hmm...) The terrain type determines both the number and the type of structures. Depending on the type of hex, structures could be things like dwarven mine-works, small caves, monster lairs, burial sites, temples/shrines, residential buildings, barracks, workshops, vaults. Presumably important public buildings are mostly located in caverns, whereas mazes mostly contain things that they want to protect or hide (like graves and vaults, maybe) or things that appear as the result of neglect (like shantytowns and monster lairs). Also, I'm calling these "significant structures" because you could imagine in-significant structures being part of the set dressing in passages or caverns. (You could walk past a row of dwarven office-worker cubicles that contain no personal effects, or there could be a block of spartan dwarven apartments that you have no need to enter or search.) This is the content that you're filling the the undercity with.
 
Significant structures should be like minidungeons. Ideally, it should take considerably less than a single game session to explore one structure. You might have some of these pre-keyed and waiting to be used, others could be procedurally-generated right there at the table, as long as the procedures are fast enough. Dwarven mine-works, for example, might be 1-6 rooms, with the room-types weighted toward long passages leading away from the entry. Dwarven buildings could have a handful of stock blueprints, which are then filled up using random tables. Characters should be able to explore multiple structures as a routine part of almost every session. Hexes that contain special/unique locations could contain large buildings that take one or more sessions to explore.

Secret doors
There are a few ways to get secret doors. In a maze, if there are more exits than structures, then some of the exits are hidden. Also, you may have noticed that I'm suggesting that each hex have between 2-5 ways in and out. There are no true dead-ends using the procedures I've laid out, but there are also no hexes without any barriers between them and the others. These barriers lead to secret doors in two ways. One way is, you go into a hex and roll for the number of exits. The number you get is larger than the number of unblocked sides (or, when you're randomly determining which sides have exits, you get a side that's blocked.) Voila, that exit is hidden. Also, there are going to be some hexes, or even some small areas that seem to be fully blocked off from the rest of the undercity. For each hex or area like that, random procedure decides if it's truly solid rock, or open but only accessible from a higher or lower level, or open but only accessible by secret door, or open but accessible both by secret door and stairs from above or below.
 
By the way, what happens if you know from its surroundings that a hex has more exits than you just rolled when you finally entered it? That means something has happened to make one of those exits unusable for now, and you're either going to have to quest for it or negotiate with a faction to get that connector fixed.
 
Dwarven factions
I don't know what my friend's plans are, but I do want to point out that the OSR has created a plethora of usable dwarf-types. Chris Kutalik of Hill Cantons and Slumbering Ursine Dunes has given us robo-dwarves and caveman dwarves. Jason Sholtis of Dungeon Dozen and Operation Unfathomable has written gray dwarves, blue dwarves, and bat-winged dwarves. This is to say nothing of all the dwarven subtypes that Wizards and Paizo have published. Thanks to the Open Gaming License, those (or some re-written version of them) are all available for any dwarf-themed project.
 
 
 
Okay, I think that's enough brainstorming for now. With this framework, and some minor tweaking, one has the beginnings of the procedures necessary to start creating a dwarven city megadungeon for DCC characters to explore. You'd need to start with a blank hexmap that has the outline of the first level of the city. The terrain types here give you the start of a procedure to fill in the hexes as the characters explore, and the times and movement rates lay out how much they can explore per day. (You'd still need tables to decide "what's in this cavern?" and "which significant structures are in these passages?", etc, but this is a start.)
 
Camping and staying overnight in dwarven houses is pretty much mandatory after the first few forays, although intelligent use of horses and scouts could let the players focus on in-and-out play for awhile before they start going deeper. The use of passages should keep the whole place feeling more like a dungeon and less like some gigantic open space, without the same slowdown that mazes create. The use of structures should also prevent it from feeling like you're always in abstract space, while keeping the structures mostly very small should prevent getting so caught up in exploring individual buildings that you have no time to move across the larger structure. I'm trying to thread a needle, basically, but I think these procedures should avoid several undesirable outcomes ("undesirable" for the goal of feeling like you're in a sprawling dwarven warren, anyway). Only playtesting will reveal if I got it right, or show up where the mistakes are and the fixes are needed.

Mycetes-Thrax Spellburn

Below are my spellburn results for Mycetes-Thrax. I was inspired by the description of glowburn in Mutant Crawl Classics, where shamans ingest radioactive substances to overclock the processing of their wetware programs.

One idea I'm trying out is removing the flexibility to choose which ability score is sacrificed (for most of the entries). Typical spellburn results suggest that whatever the caster has done can be represented by her choice of Strength, Agility, or Stamina loss - but I thought I might be able to imagine more evocative results if I tied each one directly to a specific ability score.



SPELLBURN (MYCETES-THRAX)

1 The caster inhales a handful of soporific spores. She becomes exhausted and lethargic, expressed as temporary Strength loss. The caster must sleep for 12 hours tonight.

2 The caster inhales psychotropic spores or ingests hallucinogenic fungi. Motion swirls, colors glow, and she perceives objects doubled or tripled, expressed as temporary Agility loss. The caster cannot read for the rest of the day.

3 The caster ingests a handful of toxic fungi. She gags, sweats, weeps, and vomits, expressed as temporary Stamina loss. The caster cannot eat or drink for the rest of the day (and gains no benefit if she does.)

4 The caster receives a blessing from Mycetes-Thrax. The caster improves her spellcheck result by 2 for every 1 point of spellburn. Her skin blossoms with tiny flesh-colored mushrooms that easily snap off at the base, expressed as her choice of temporary Strength, Agility, or Stamina loss. The number of mushrooms is equal to the spellcheck increase (double the ability score loss.) Any other character who eats these mushrooms heals 1 hp for each, but is afflicted by temporary narcolepsy, illiteracy, or nausea, as above, depending on the caster's choice of ability score loss.

Death & Dismemberment Table for DCC

In Dungeon Crawl Classics, there are two ways to save a dying character.

First, a character who drops to 0 hit points starts bleeding out, and continues bleeding out for a number of rounds equal to their character level (so a 0th-level character bleeds out instantly, a 1st-level character bleeds out for 1 round, a 2nd-level character for 2 rounds, and so on.) If a character receives healing while they're bleeding out (either from a cleric's lay on hands ability or from the new fleeting luck mechanic) then they lose 1 Stamina and wake up with however many hit points they regained. Healing a character who's bleeding out requires another character to step outside combat to administer aid (unless fleeting luck allows characters to heal themselves, I'm not completely sure how this new mechanic works.)

Second, a character who drops to 0 hit points might get saved if their friends roll over the body. The idea of rolling over the body is that maybe the character got lucky - maybe they weren't really dead with 0 hit points, maybe they were actually just unconscious with 1 hit point. The character who seemed to be dead rolls a Luck check - if they roll less than or equal to their Luck score, they get lucky, and they're just unconscious (if they roll over their Luck score, then they're unlucky, and they're really dead.) If a character is rolled over, they lose 1 Strength, Agility, or Stamina (at random) and they get -4 to all Action Dice rolls for the next hour. Like healing, rolling over the body requires another character to administer aid. Unlike healing, there's no time limit built into the rules for rolling over the body. You can attempt to roll over the body of a character you failed to heal who just bled out before your eyes - maybe they'll get lucky and it just looks like they're dead. You can also attempt to roll over the body of a character who got left behind when everyone else ran away from the monster that seemed to kill them, or a character who got dragged away to one monster's lair while the other monsters prevented the other characters from following - as long as you eventually find the body, no matter how much time as past, you can attempt to roll them over and see if they're really alive. (As a judge, I would probably still rule that 0th-level characters who seem to die are really dead and can't be saved. And I wouldn't let the other characters find the body of a fallen comrade unless I was willing to let them try to roll over the body and save them.)

I've written a Death & Dismemberment Table for DCC. (As far as I can tell, the idea and name of a "death and dismemberment table" originally comes from Robert Fischer's "Classic D&D Injury Table" and was popularized to reach a wider audience in Trollsmyth's "Playing with Death and Dismemberment." Since then, the idea has diffused and proliferated into numerous versions and rule systems.) To roll on this Death & Dismemberment Table, a character still has to be saved from death by being healed while bleeding out or by having their body rolled over to discover they're really still alive. Healing still requires clerical magic or fleeting luck, and rolling over the body still requires a successful Luck check. However, this table replaces the automatic ability score loss that accompanies healing or rolling over. Instead of automatically losing 1 Stamina (or automatically losing 1 Strength, Agility, or Stamina) the character instead experiences random ability score loss. On average, the results of this table are equivalent to the automatic 1 point loss in the DCC core rules - but only on average, any individual roll might produce results that are worse, the same, or better than the result listed in the core rules. Also, the way I've suggested deciding what dice to roll means that low-level characters are likely to get worse results than the following the core rules, while high-level characters are likely to to experience better.



DEATH & DISMEMBERMENT TABLE

Roll on this table after a character has been saved by healing magic, fleeting luck, or rolling over the body. The dice-type for the roll is determined by the character administering the life-saving aid, and the roll is modified by the Luck score of the dying character.

Most characters are untrained in medical care, and so roll a d10. Characters with the following occupations are considered trained, and so roll a d20 - alchemist, barber, butcher, dwarven apothecarist, elven sage, halfling chicken butcher, healer, herbalist, shaman. (Judges using alternative occupation lists should determine which occupations are considered trained in medicine.) Clerics always roll d20 + CL. Unless granted a superior dice-type by their occupation, thieves roll the dice-type indicated by their "cast spell from scroll" ability. (At the judge's discretion, thieves could recieve the dice-type determined by their occupation and add their "handle poison" bonus to the roll, but this decision should be consistent across all thieves.) Wizards who have an arcane affinity for necromany use the dice-type indicated by their occupation, but they may improve it by +1d for each one spell their affinity grants them the ability to cast using a higher die. (For example, a necromancer who got result 14-15 on the arcane affinity spell rolls a d12, while a necromancer who got result 26-29 when casting arcane affinity rolls a d16. The maximum benefit of this training is to roll a d30, which would require both a trained occupation and an arcane affinity result of 16-19 or higher.)

Roll    Result
 
0 or less    Internal bleeding / cerebral hemorrhage. Your injury is much worse than it initially appeared. Outwardly you look unscathed, but your insides are shattered and pulped. Despite all efforts to save you, you bleed out and die.

1    Stroke. You blacked out, and when you came to everything was dark and quiet. You are blinded (by a cutting attack) or deafened (by a bludgeoning attack) until healed and you permanently lose 2 points of Personality (if cut) or 2 points of Intelligence (if bludgeoned).

2    Spinal injury. You heard a terrible snapping sound, and now you can't feel your body or move it except to make it twitch or spasm. You are paralyzed until healed, and you permanently lose 2 points of Stamina.

3    Shattered elbow. You landed hard, and your arm bent at an ugly, impossible angle. Your broken arm is useless until healed, and you permanently lose 2 points of Strength.

4    Mangled hand. You broke your fingers, snapped your wrist. You'll never make such precise, steady movements again. Your broken arm is useless until healed, and you permanently lose 2 points of Agility.

5    Concussion. You passed out, you threw up. Your head is spinning, your vision is blurred, you can hear people talking but you can't understand the words. You permanently lose 1 point of  Personality (if cut) or 1 point of Intelligence (if bludgeoned), and until your organ damage is healed, you cannot engage in strenuous activity (combat, running, jumping, swimming, climbing) without making a DC 10 Will save or else getting dizzy passing out.

6    Heart attack. For a moment your heart stopped and you couldn't draw breath. You vomited and shit blood. Even now it feels like your chest is being crushed in a vise. You permanently lose 1 point of Stamina, and until your organ damage is healed, you cannot engage in strenuous activity (combat, running, jumping, swimming, climbing) without making a DC 10 Fortitude save or else hyperventilating and fainting.

7    Slipped disc. Your spine twisted and your hip fell out of its socket. Your leg is numb and you can't feel your toes. You feel pins and needles when you feel anything at all. Until your broken leg is healed, your movement rate is reduced by half, and you permanently lose 1 point of Strength.

8    Shattered knee / broken ankle. You went down hard and now your leg can barely support your weight. You'll never be as nimble or as light on your feet as you were before. Until your broken leg is healed, your movement rate is reduced by half, and you permanently lose 1 point of Agility.

9    Nasty headwound. You have an ugly scar on your face now. It makes you stupid; it makes you mean. You permanently lose 1 point of Personality (from a cutting attack) or 1 point of Intelligence (from a bludgeoning attack.)

10    Broken ribs. Your chest made horrible cracking sounds as you slammed into the ground. You'll never draw a full breath again. You permanently lose 1 point of Stamina.

11    Dislocated shoulder. Your arm was knocked from its socket. You can put it back, but it'll never bear weight like it used to. You permanently lose 1 point of Strength.

12    Sprained wrist. Your hand got bent back too far, at an angle it was never meant to turn. It will always feel stiff and shaky after this. You permanently lose 1 point of Agility.

13    Success! You are revived without permanent injury.

14    Success! You are revived without permanent injury.

15    Success! You are revived without permanent injury.

16    Success! You are revived without permanent injury.

17    Superior healing! You moved faster than you've ever moved before trying to dodge that last blow. You failed then, but you won't fail again. Permanently gain 1 point of Agility.

18    Superior healing! You never saw such perfection in the techniques of violence until you saw the blow that almost killed you. Now that you've seen it, you'll fight more perfectly too. Permanently gain 1 point of Strength.

19    Superior healing! All your life you've had a crick in your spine; your bones clicked when arched your back, flexed your hips, turned your wrist, stretched your jaw. Somehow that last blow knocked everything into place, suddenly everything just fits and nothing is out of place. Permanently gain 1 point of Stamina.

20    Superior healing! You used to be callow and naive. Nearly dying has changed all that. You have perspective now. Permanently gain 1 point of Intelligence or 1 point of Personality (your choice).

21 or more    Divine intervention / patron bond. Your recovery is nothing short of supernatural. Some powerful being had a hand in keeping you alive. It might have been your cleric's deity, your wizard's patron, or another supernatural entity trying to recruit you. You recover all hit points and permanently gain 2 points of Luck. In addition, roll 2d4 + 10; you gain that result in Divine Aid or from the appropriate Invoke Patron spell. You can gain this Aid or Invocation at once, or later at a time of your choosing. The entity owns you now; it saved your life, and you owe it a favor in return.

Characters I Want to Play - Alternate Occupation Tables for MCC

The Mutant Crawl Classics core rules provides separate tables for starting occupations (hunter or gatherer) and character genotypes (pure-strain human, mutant, manimal, or plantient).

My first thought when I saw this was that there was no reason to separate these tables. One of the interesting things about Dungeon Crawl Classics' starting occupations table is that it determines both the character's race (human, dwarven, elven, or halfling) and their occupation with one roll.

My second thought was that I could use the occupation lists from DCC #79: Frozen in Time or from Mystic Bull Games' The Tribe of Ogg and the Gift of Suss to replace the minimalist occupation list in MCC proper.

Below are three tables providing alternate occupations and genotypes for MCC characters. The first table uses only the occupations originally found in the Mutant Crawl Classics rules. (In all three tables, I preserved the frequency of the original genotypes.)

01-16    Human hunter - wood spear (1d5)
17-32    Human gatherer - leather bag
33-49    Mutant hunter - wood spear (1d5)
50-66    Mutant gatherer - leather bag
67-77    Manimal hunter - wood spear (1d5)
78-88    Manimal gatherer - leather bag
89-94    Plantient hunter - wood spear (1d5)
95-00    Plantient gatherer - leather bag



The second tables uses the occupations found in Frozen in Time. The pure-strain humans have occupations that went to humans in the original table. Only pure-strain humans can start as lore-keeper's assistants, shaman's assistants, or as stargazers. The mutants have occupations that went to both humans and demihumans. The manimals and plantients have only those occupations that originally went to demihumans. Manimals are weighted more heavily toward dwarven and halfling occupations, while plantients are weighted more heavily toward elven occupations.

   01    Human artisan - club & clay pot of ochre paint
02-03    Human butcher - flint cleaver (as hand axe) & side of mammoth meat
04-05    Human brewer - club & skin of beer
   06    Human canoe-maker - dagger & canoe
07-08    Human cord-maker - knife (as dagger) & hide cordage, 50'
   09    Human fire-bearer - spear & clay pot of embers
10-11    Human fisherman - harpoon (as javelin) & flint fishhooks, 12
12-14    Human gatherer - knife (as dagger) & basket of vegetables
   15    Human healer - club & bone needle and sinew thread
   16    Human herbalist - club & herbs, 1 lb
17-19    Human hunter - spear & animal pelt
   20    Human lore-keeper's assistant - club & divination bones
21-22    Human orphan - club & weird trinket from former tribe
23-24    Human potter - club & clay, 1 lb
   25    Human shaman's assistant - club & herbs, 1 lb
26-27    Human slave - club & strange-looking rock
   28    Human stargazer - spear & piece of meteorite iron
29-30    Human tanner - dagger & hide armor
31-32    Human weaver - dagger & fabric, 3 yards
   33    Mutant artisan - club & clay pot of ochre paint
34-35    Mutant butcher - flint cleaver (as hand axe) & side of mammoth meat
36-37    Mutant brewer - club & skin of beer
38-39    Mutant canoe-maker - dagger & canoe
40-41    Mutant cord-maker - knife (as dagger) & hide cordage, 50'
   42    Mutant flintknapper - flint hand axe & flint, 1 lb
   43    Mutant herder - staff & elk calf
   44    Mutant fletcher - short bow & flint arrowheads, 20
   45    Mutant scout - spear & piece of signaling quartz
   46    Mutant fire-bearer - spear & clay pot of embers
47-48    Mutant fisherman - harpoon (as javelin) & flint fishhooks, 12
49-50    Mutant gatherer - knife (as dagger) & basket of vegetables
   51    Mutant animal trainer - club & wolf pup
   52    Mutant fowler - sling & feathered cape
   53    Mutant healer - club & bone needle and sinew thread
   54    Mutant herbalist - club & herbs, 1 lb
55-56    Mutant hunter - spear & animal pelt
57-58    Mutant orphan - club & weird trinket from former tribe
59-60    Mutant potter - club & clay, 1 lb
61-62    Mutant slave - club & strange looking rock
63-64    Mutant tanner - dagger & hide armor
65-66    Mutant weaver - dagger & fabric, 3 yards
67-71    Manimal flintknapper - flint hand axe & flint, 1 lb
72-76    Manimal herder - staff & elk calf
75-76    Manimal fletcher - short bow & flint arrowheads, 20
77-78    Manimal scout - spear & piece of signaling quartz
79-83    Manimal animal trainer - club & wolf pup
84-88    Manimal fowler - sling & feathered cape
   89    Plantient flintknapper - flint hand axe & flint, 1 lb
   90    Plantient herder - staff & elk calf
91-94    Plantient fletcher - short bow & flint arrowheads, 20
95-98    Plantient scout - spear & piece of signaling quartz
   99    Plantient animal trainer - club & wolf pup
   00    Plantient fowler - sling & feathered cape



The third and final table uses the occupations found in The Tribe of Ogg. The role of shaman's apprentice is again reserved for pure-strain humans. There were no occupations specific to the demihuman ooloi in this adventure, so as in the first table, all genotypes draw on the same list of occupations.

01-04    Human fisher - spear & string of fish
05-08    Human flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
09-16    Human gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
17-26    Human hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
27-28    Human shaman's assistant - club & fetish object
29-32    Human tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides
33-36    Mutant fisher - spear & string of fish
37-40    Mutant flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
41-51    Mutant gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
52-62    Mutant hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
63-66    Mutant tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides
67-69    Manimal fisher - spear & string of fish
70-72    Manimal flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
73-78    Manimal gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
79-85    Manimal hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
86-88    Manimal tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides
89-90    Plantient fisher - spear & string of fish
91-92    Plantient flint knapper - flint axe & 1d5 stone daggers
93-95    Plantient gatherer - stone dagger & leather bag
96-98    Plantient hunter - spear & hunk of dried meat
99-00    Plantient tanner - club & 1d3 tanned hides


 
At some point I might try my hand at writing my own alternate occupations table, possibly with slightly modified genotype ratios - but for now I just wanted to make something to facilitate picking occupation and genotype in a single roll, and something that utilizes the two already-existing stone-age occupation tables from DCC.

Spells I Want to Cast - The Horned King's "Name of the Quarry"

In Dungeon Crawl Classics #72: Beyond the Black Gate, author Harley Stroh introduces a patron called The Horned King, the king of the Wild Hunt. Stroh writes "The Horned King rules from the Thrice-Tenth Kingdom, venturing across the multiverse on his Wild Hunts. A solemn and grim lord, he delights only in the hunt, testing his martial prowess against the deadliest foes. A patron of the old ways, the Horned King bestows his blessing on heathen witches, barbarian shamans, and warriors that exalt the wild savage hidden within."

Beyond the Black Gate includes the Horned King's Invoke patron results, his patron taint, and his 1st level spell, Slaying strike. Stroh also gives the name of the Horned King's next two spells, Name of the quarry and Call of the wild hunt.

Below, I've written a possible version of Name of the quarry. I wrote it awhile ago after reading about the legend of Actaeon, and after reading about the victims of a certain roving internet auto-de-fé, about how they all reported that every time they tried to speak online after being targeted, someone showed up to harass them back into silence, about how they all came to feel that remaining silent was their only defense from having themselves and their family members attacked both online and in person. I have no intention of making light of their experience by writing this; instead it made me think what Actaeon would have felt if his legend had been true.

I think this is a truly evil spell. It's not a spell that kills the target; it's a spell that ruins their life. Refereeing the results of this spell requires the judge to develop an outline of the target's plan for the duration of the spell. Once per day within the game, the judge should make a saving throw on the target's behalf, and if the save fails, report a vision of the target's plight to the caster.



NAME OF THE QUARRY

Level: 2 (Horned King)
Range: Varies
Duration: Varies
Casting time: 1 turn
Save: Will vs. spell check

General: The caster invokes the Wild Hunt to blaspheme the name of a specific creature, her quarry. The caster speaks a litany of complaint against her quarry, destroying its reputation and turning everyone it meets against it. Rumors begin to spread about the quarry and its location, and the caster's words find their way onto the gossipers' lips when they speak of it. At higher levels of success, the spell begins to transform the quarry into a deer-like creature, brands it with a new true name created by the caster's indictment, and turns even the quarry's closest friends and allies into accomplices of the caster and her hunt. This spell's curse becomes especially acute each time the quarry speaks; its only defenses are to remain silent or to flee beyond the range of the spell.

This powerful spell requires at least 1 point of spellburn to cast. Additionally, the caster must select a worthy target as her quarry; the Horned King has no tolerance for cowards who waste his wrath on small game. The caster must select a target with HD at least equal to her current level, or the spellcheck is automatically treated as a result of 1, and this result cannot be altered by spending spellburn or luck.

Manifestation: Roll 1d4: (1) The entire text of the caster's indictment is burned into nearby stone, a permanent monument available for any visitor to read; (2) all the birds in the forest begin singing and tweeting the caster's complaint, her words echo in the local birdsong for the duration of the spell; (3) the air fills with the scent of blood and all the predators of the wood howl and cry, for the duration of the spell their eyes turn red and they gather in the open as proud and unafraid as if they were rabid; (4) a vision of a ghostly white deer appears before the caster and flees at top speed, for the duration of the spell, wherever the caster looks, she will see a vision of the ghostly hind fleeing from the corner of her eye.

Mifire: Roll 1d6: (1) The party immediately encounters a local wild animal which attacks the caster, and any tame animals in the party join for one attack against the caster each; (2) for the rest of the day, any strangers the party encounters will be automatically hostile, and will automatically attack if the caster speaks to them; (3) for the next week, whenever the party hears rumors, at least one will be about the caster, accusing her of cowardice and weakness; (4) for the next week, whenever the party hears rumors, at least one will be about the intended target, praising its virtues; (5) 1d6 men-at-arms (DCC434) and 1d6 wolves (DCC431) appear before the intended target and swear their fealty to help it track and slay the caster; (6) the intended target learns the caster's current location and a lesser secret name for the caster, granting it the benefits described in result 30-31 below.

1    Failure! Lost, misfire, and patron taint. Unlike normal spells, this spell may not be attempted against the same target for at least one month, or against a different target for at least a week.

2-11    Failure, lost. Unlike normal spells, this spell may not be attempted against the same target for at least one week, or against a different target for at least a day.

12-13    Failure, but spell is not lost. However, unlike normal spells, this spell may not be attempted against the same target for at least one day.

14-15    For the next day, every time the quarry speaks, it must save or strangers become hostile to it and nearby strange animals become restive and anxious in its presence. The caster receives a faint premonition each time the quarry fails a save. This effect is only active in the immediate geographic region around the casting location (a castle, a dungeon level, a village, a neighborhood within a city.)

16-19    For the next week, every time the quarry speaks, it must save or strangers become hostile to it, acquaintances become indifferent, nearby strange animals attack it, and nearby familiar animals become restive and anxious. The caster receives a faint premonition each time the quarry fails a save. During this week, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry. This effect is active in the close geographic region around the casting location (a castle or village and the surrounding countryside, a dungeon level or city neighborhood as well as the adjacent levels and neighborhoods.)

20-21    For the next week, every time the quarry speaks, it must save or strangers and strange animals attack it, acquaintances and familiar animals become hostile to it, and even close friends become uncomfortable and indifferent toward it. The caster receives a definite impression of the result each time the quarry fails a save. During this week, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry. This effect is active in the entire geographic region around the casting location (an entire countryside, on every level of a dungeon, throughout a city and its metropolitan area.)

22-25    The quarry permanently grows the stub antlers of a fawn deer. For the next month, every time the quarry speaks, strangers and strange animals attack it with no save allowed, and it must save or acquaintances and familiar animals attack it, and even close friends become hostile to it. The caster receives a definite impression of the result each time the quarry is attacked. During this month, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry. This effect is active in the entire geographic region around the casting location, and along the borders of the neighboring regions.

26-29    The quarry permanently grows the antlers of an adult deer. For the next month, every time the quarry speaks, strangers, acquaintances, and any nearby animals attack it with no save allowed, and it must save or even close friends attack as well. The caster hears the sounds of combat each time the quarry is attacked. During this month, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry. This effect remains active throughout the entire kingdom or country where the spell was cast, as well as along the borders of neighboring principalities.

30-31    The caster brands her quarry with a new lesser secret name. The quarry gains a -1 penalty to saving throws against all spells sent by the caster and anyone else who knows their new name, and all attempts to magically influence the quarry by using this new name gain a +1 to the spell check result. The quarry permanently grows the antlers of an adult deer, and its ears reshape to become deer-like. For the next year, every time the quarry speaks, everyone nearby attacks it with no save allowed. The caster hears the sounds of combat each time the quarry is attacked. During this year, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry. This effect remains active in every land and kingdom of the empire where the spell was cast.

32-33    The caster brands her quarry with a new greater secret name. The quarry gains a -2 penalty to saving throws against all spells sent by the caster and anyone else who knows their new name, and all attempts to magically influence the quarry by using this new name gain a +2 to the spell check result. The quarry permanently grows the antlers of an adult deer, its ears reshape to become deer-like, its hind feet become cloven hooves, and it becomes an obligate vegetarian unable to consume meat. For the next year, every time the quarry speaks, everyone nearby attacks it with no save allowed. The caster receives a vision through the eyes of an attacker every time the quarry is attacked. During this year, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry. This effect remains active throughout the empire where the spell was cast, as well as its imperial neighbors.

34+    The caster brands her quarry with a new true secret name. The quarry gains a -4 penalty to saving throws against all spells sent by the caster and anyone else who knows their new name, and all attempts to magically influence the quarry by using this new name gain a +4 to the spell check result. The quarry permanently grows the antlers and furry coat of an adult deer, its ears and entire face reshape to become deer-like, its hind legs become back-bending and its hind feet become cloven hooves, and it becomes an obligate vegetarian unable to consume meat. For the rest of the target's life, every time it speaks, everyone nearby attacks it with no save allowed. The caster receives a vision through the eyes of an attacker every time the quarry is attacked. For the next generation, every time the caster and her companions hear rumors, at least one will be about the quarry, whose infamy will be still spoken of by today's children until their old age. This effect remains active anywhere in the world; the quarry can only escape by fleeing to another planet or plane of existence.

DCC Patron: Mycetes-Thrax

MYCETES-THRAX

Mycetes-Thrax, the Great Sleeping Growth, lurks beneath the soil. This titanic entity is a single fungus that stretches for hundreds of leagues under the earth and has grown sentient and wise with the eons. It rewards its servants with utterly alien but useful and fearsome powers. Its wisdom is great and it knows much forgotten lore.

 

INVOKE PATRON SPELL CHECK RESULTS

12-13    Mycetes-Thrax exhales in its slumber, and the air within 10' of the caster fills with spores like winter snow, while the ground is a 10' circle erupts with cilia like frost-covered grass, surrounded by a fairy-ring of inch-tall mushrooms.
 
For the next combat round, the caster and her allies can withdraw from combat without opening themselves up to free attacks, and anyone who flees the area this round will not be chased.


14-17    Communication spores. The air within 20' of the caster fills with a cloud of twinkling spores like a vision of distant stars.

For the next 2 exploration turns, every creature with at least animal intelligence present within the cloud gains the ability to speak Basidiomata, the racial language of Shroomen and other creatures aligned with Mycetes-Thrax. This has two effects: first, everyone present is now capable of speaking to and understanding everyone else; and second, every creature present halts combat for at least one round in order to talk and listen. The result of this conversation may be an end to hostilities, or if combat resumes, it may continue under altered circumstances.
 
Additionally, the caster must make a Will save versus the spell check result. If the save is successful, the caster permanently speaks and understands the Basidiomata language.


18-19    Mycetes-Thrax blinks awake for a moment, and the air within 30' of the caster fills with spores like mottled green fog, while the ground in a 30' circle erupts with foot-long tentacles like hungry leeches.

The spores cloud the air and obscure vision, providing cover for the caster and her allies for the next 3 combat rounds. (Attack rolls against a character with cover get -2.)
 
In addition, the caster's enemies must make Ref saves versus the spell check result of become entangled for 3 rounds by the tentacles wrapping around their legs. (Entangled creatures move at half their normal speed, and attack rolls against entangled creatures are at +1d.)

 
 20-23    Sleeping spores. The air within 40' of the caster fills with blinking spores like a cloud of fireflies.
 
The caster's enemies must make Fort saves versus the spell check result or fall into a supernatural slumber for 4 hours. During this time, they cannot be woken by normal means (except by being attacked), and only a reversed sleep spell or other counterspell can end this effect early. The sleeping creatures are helpless until they awake. Even if attacked, the creatures can only wake early by making a successful Fort save. (Attack rolls against helpless creatures are made at +1d.)

Additionally, the caster has a dream vision of Mycetes-Thrax. The caster sees the Great Sleeping Growth at rest in its realm beneath the earth. The caster immediately suffers one random patron taint, and must make a Will save versus the spell check result or suffer one more.


24-27    Mycetes-Thrax wakes and briefly glances at the caster. For 50' around the caster, the air fills with a sleet of stinging, sticking spores, and the ground erupts with human-height tentalces that grasp and grope like children lost in the dark.
 
The caster's enemies must make Fort saves versus the spell check result or be blinded by these toxic spores. Any creature that rolls a natural 1 on this save is blinded permanently. (Attack rolls against a blinded creature get +2. Attacks made by a blinded creature have a 50% chance to miss.)
 
In addition, for the next 5 combat rounds, the caster's enemies must make Ref saves or grappled by a tentacle, hoisted aloft, and crushed for 1d8 damage per round. A grappled creature cannot attack anything except the tentacle holding it. A grappled creature can escape by making an attack with a cutting weapon against AC 10 that deals at least 5 damage in a single round, or by using its action to make a DC 15 Strength check. A creature that escapes can still become grappled again during the next round if it fails its Ref save. (Attack rolls against helpless creatures are at +1d.)


28-29    Hallucinatory spores. The air within 60' of the caster fills with a cloud of flashing spores like neon lights.
 
The caster's enemies must make Will saves versus the spell check result or spend one combat round making their most powerful or magical attack against another random enemy as they hallucinate the caster multiplying and becoming omnipresent.
 
In addition, the caster's enemies must also make a Fort save or take only one action every other round (until 6 rounds have passed), as they hallucinate the passage of time slowing and becoming dreamlike.
 
Additionally, the caster has a hallucinatory vision of Mycetes-Thrax. The caster may ask a single question, which Mycetes-Thrax answers truthfully. Although the answer comes slowly from the caster's perspective, only an instant of real time passes during the vision. The caster immediately suffers two random patron taints, and must make a Will save versus the spell check result or suffer two more.


30-31    Mycetes-Thrax comes fully awake and turns its full ire on the caster's foes before drifting back into its eternal slumber. A blizzard of purple spores like gale-blown confetti swirls in the air within 70' of the caster, while tiny white puff balls float up from the floor and pop like balloons, and 10' tentacles like limbless birch trees burst from the ground, whipping and dancing violently in a circle extending 70' from the caster in every direction.
 
The caster's enemies must make Fort saves versus the spell check result or begin to suffocate, losing 1d6 Stamina per round until they either die or make a successful save. Any creature that rolls a natural 1 on this save suffers permanent Stamina loss rather than temporary Stamina damage for that round.
 
In addition, 7 giant white puff balls drop from the ceiling and roll across the room, each crushing one random enemy for 2d8 damage and knocking it prone unless it makes a Ref save. Any creature that rolls a nature 1 on this save takes the maximum 16 damage. Each puff ball that strikes an enemy explodes when it reaches the far side of the room, creating a deafening boom, a violent wind, and another cloud of purple spores that cover and cling to the caster's enemies.
 
Every opponent who survives this experience must check Morale or run screaming for their lives, and the check is at -1 for each giant puff ball that exploded.


32+    Reproductive spores. Within 90' of the caster, spores rise from the ground billows of dust being kicked up from a forgotten floor.

All dead bodies within 90' of the caster arise as Shroomen and attack the caster's enemies. Everyone living creature that dies for the next 9 rounds arises as well. (Bodies arise as one Shrooman per HD of the original creature.)

In the next combat round after this spell is cast, the caster's enemies must make a Fort save versus the spell check result or transform into Shroomen themselves. (Again, those who transform become one Shrooman per original HD.)

Additionally, the caster immediately suffers three random patron taints, and must make a Will save versus the spell check result or suffer three more.
 
Once combat is over, the Shroomen remain in the area as an army under the caster's command. This army is ultimately loyal to Mycetes-Thrax, and is tasked with a specific quest to advance the Great Sleeping Growth's agenda. Like their patron, the Shroomen are patient and will tolerate delays and diversions as long as the caster appears to be pursuing the quest, but they will attack the caster and her allies if any of them act to subvert Mycetes-Thrax's interests.

• Shrooman: Init -5; Atk slam +4 melee (4d4); AC 18; HD 2d8+6; MV 10'; Act 1/2d20; SP fungal cloud (starting in the second combat round: creatures within 20' are -2 to attack, damage, and saves; and creatures within 20' must make DC 14 Fort save or lose 1d4 Agility and 1d4 damage per round), half damage from bludgeoning weapons, infravision 100'; SV Fort +8, Ref -4, Will +4; AL N; Crit M/d6.

PATRON SPELLS: MYCETES-THRAX

Myctetes-Thrax grants three spells, as follows:

Level 1: Mouldering Touch
Level 2: Spores of the Basidirond
Level 3: Mycetes-Thrax's Fecund Fungi

Index: Snails

Below is an index of snail-related materials I might use in my own games.

At the time of creation, this Index has content from Dyson's Dodecahedron's "Snail Lords of the Salt Flats" mini-setting, (which may someday be published by Lost Pages,) and from Bernie the Flumph!'s "Blorgamorg, the Chthonic Snail" patron for DCC. More categories, as well as more entries within the existing categories, will be added as it becomes available.

from Dyson's Dodecahedron:
Snail Lord Character Class
Polearms of the Snail Lords
Dark Spire through Salted Lands
Twelve Bodies in the Firmaments of the Salt Flats

"Snail Lord" by Dyson Logos

from Bernie the Flumph!:
Patron: Blorgamorg, the Chthonic Snail
Invoke Patron, Patron Taint, and Spellburn (Blorgamorg)
Patron Spell 1: Snail Mail (Blorgamorg)
Patron Spell 2: Shell Shelter (Blorgamorg) (formerly planned as 3rd level spell "Shell House")
Patron Spell 3: Love Dart (Blorgamorg) (formerly planned as 2nd level spell "Slobber Globber Lobber")
Index of Blorgamorg entries on the Bernie the Flumph! blog
Crepuscular zine, issue 1, featuring Blorgamorg and "The Sanctum of the Snail" adventure (available for sale in print and pdf, note: I playtested this adventure)

As an aside, I keep wanting to call this patron "Blorg-ma-gorg" instead.

"Blorgamorg" by Josh Burnett

from Le Chaudron Chromatique:

Snail Flailer Character Class 

"Snail Flailer" by Evelyn Moreau

Update Log:

22 Feb 2017: Index created 

31 Mar 2017: Snail Flailer Character Class added

2 Sept 2017: "Shell Shelter" and "Love Dart" spells added, Blorgamorg index added, artist information for "Snail Flailer" corrected
6 May 2018: "Sanctum of the Snail" adventure added

Mechanics I Want to Use - Boomerage Stealing Attack

The second use for the boomerang in the Legend of Zelda games (besides stunning / paralyzing your enemies, as in my earlier post) is picking up objects and carrying them back to you. Other games have similar "fetching" weapons, like the grappler in Super Metroid. What's even cooler than simply picking up objects off the ground? Plucking them out of your enemies hands, and depositing them directly into yours, obviously.

But I also wanted this deed to capture the feel of something else - the moment when you kill an enemy and they leave behind arrows, or missiles, or a special weapon recharge, or money, or a bomb, or a grenade, or (most often) a little refill of health. The Mega Man games employ this same mechanic.

So, what we have is a deed for rangers that lets them either disarm their opponent and steal their weapon, or steal a little power-up / prize. As a mechanic, it absolutely is a bit video-gamey, since you get the prize based on your Deed Die roll, regardless of whether or not that item was on the judge's list of treasures to be found on that particular opponent. (Although the judge could insist that this only works on humanoids who are carrying some kind of equipment, or that you have to accept a lower result if it doesn't make sense for them to be carrying the item in question.

Weapon Specific Deed - Stealing Attack (boomerang)

The ranger throws her boomerang to knock away a piece of her opponent's equipment and return it to herself. If possible, the boomerang knocks away her opponent's weapon and return's it directly into the ranger's hand to wield next round. Otherwise, it returns adventuring equipment as listed below.

The judge is encouraged to tailor these results slightly to fit the nature of the opponent and the setting (for example, by choosing the denomination of the coinage, the type of ammunition, or the specific grenade-like weapon.)

3     The ranger steals a weapon up to the size of a dagger, or 1d12 coins.
4     The ranger steals a weapon up to the size of a short sword, or 1d6 rations, 1d6 torches, or other basic equipment.
5     The ranger steals a weapon up to the size of a longsword, or 1d6 arrows, 1d6 sling stones, or other ammunition.
6     The ranger steals a weapon up to the size of a two-handed sword, or 1 vial of holy water, 1 flask of oil, or other grenade.
7+     The ranger steals a weapon up to the size of a lance, or: 1 mushroom elixir (imbiber heals 1d4 hit points of damage immediately) or other medicine.

After getting some feedback, I also want to revisit my advise for when a boomerang returns to its owner.

Weapon Boomerang, Damage 1d4, Range 10/20/30**, Cost in gp 25

Although it is a thrown weapon, the boomerang follows a curved flight-path that allows it to sometimes brings it back to its owner's hand. If the ranger misses her attack, the boomerang will return to her at the end of the combat round. If she makes a regular attack or regular deed, the weapon hits her opponent and falls to the ground nearby. If she makes a critical hit or a weapon-specific deed, the boomerang hits her opponent but continues on its flight, returning at the end of the round. If the ranger fumbles, the boomerang returns, but she is hit by it instead of catching it; depending on the fumble result, this may be deadly, painful, or simply embarrassing.

Both Stun and Steal could probably be used as weaponless deeds by very roguish warriors who were trained to sap or mug their enemies. The stunning attack and stealing attack could also both probably be used as weapon-specific deeds for the whip, in any kind of Western setting.

Mechanics I Want to Use - Boomerang Stunning Attack

I like the idea of weapon-specific deeds in DCC, because they feel like an easy way to add "tricks" that certain kinds of warrior can learn (possibly by "questing for it") without overwhelming the game as a whole with too many options. In deciding what kind of weapon to specialize in, a warrior is already committing herself to a particular combat style, and perhaps a particular style of play more generally. So some warriors might be very grim, others might be rather show-offy, and still others, perhaps, might be a bit whimsical.

In the Legend of Zelda games, one use of the boomerang is to fetch objects (which I'll return to later.) But the other use is to temporarily stun or paralyze enemies so that you can attack them more easily (or run away from them without being followed.) This deed is meant to imitate that mechanic from the video games.

The main question I had in mind when writing this up was "What do you call a warrior who uses a boomerang?" But then I realized that "boomeranger" shortens to "ranger" quite nicely. (I'll leave it to the reader to decide if that should be pronounced like the-one-who-ranges or like the-one-who-rang.)

 

Weapon Specific Deed - Stunning Attack (boomerang)

The ranger throws her boomerang to stun her opponent, briefly knocking the breath from their lungs or the thoughts from their head. This deed is most effective with the ranger acts before her opponent in the initiative order.

3     The ranger’s opponent acts last in the initiative this round.
4     The ranger’s opponent acts last in the initiative this round, and for the next 1d3 rounds.
5     The ranger’s opponent cannot act this round, and acts last in the initiative for the next 1d3 rounds.
6     The ranger’s opponent cannot act this round, or for the next 1d3 rounds, and acts last in the initiative until the end of combat after that.
7+     The ranger’s opponent is knocked completely unconscious until the end of combat.

Of course, to learn this deed, the warrior first needs to own a boomerang, which might be a quest in itself in the pseudo-medieval setting of most DCC games.

Weapon Boomerang, Damage 1d4, Range 10/20/30**, Cost in gp 25

Although it is a thrown weapon, the boomerang follows a curving flight-path that usually returns it to its owner at the end of each combat round. However, if the ranger rolls a natural 1 on either her Action Die or Deed Die when using the boomerang, it lands on the ground near her intended target rather than returning.

Pseudo-Preview of BPBM4

Stormlord Publishing has just released the fourth issue of their Black Powder Black Magic zine. I proofread the issue, and I also wrote up a list of familiars more suitable to a Weird West or other American setting. The familiars below aren’t on that list, but they do fit nicely on the end of it, and they give you some idea of what the other alternative familiars look like.

Lawful familiars
21 Pigeon (caster can "home in" on route out of dungeon or back to town)
22 Groundhog (caster knows coming day's weather each morning)
23 Child-sized scarecrow (opponents are -2 Morale)
24 Fey school-teacher wearing glasses and elbow-patched tweed jacket, never speaks, communicates using writing slate (caster can attempt to read any unknown language as a Lawful Thief of the same level)

Neutral familiars
21 Mockingbird (caster is able to speak 1 additional language)
22 Armadillo (caster is proficient with shields, suffers no spellcheck penalty from carrying a shield, and can shield-bash as a Dwarf)
23 Tumbleweed (caster can withdraw from melee combat without opening themselves up to a free attack)
24 Fey woodcutter wearing plaid shirt, carrying axe (+1 to attack and damage against plants and fungi)

Chaotic familiars
21 Black swan (once per day, caster may reroll any natural 7, and once per day, caster may also reroll any natural 13)
22 Giant maggot, transforms into giant black housefly during combat ("skin crawling" feeling alerts the caster to the presence of disguises and shapeshifters)
23 Giant mosquito (bite attack deals 1d4 damage and heals 1 hp)
24 Miniature black stagecoach with large glass windows revealing interior casket (+1 AC and +1 to saving throws vs. the undead)

DCC Spells I Want to Cast - Spores of the Basidirond

Below is my write-up for the 2nd level patron spell for Mycetes-Thrax. This spell is based on the effects of a famous second-tier monster from the world's most popular roleplaying game. Spores of the Basidirond is probably weaker than the 1st level spell Sleep, but in many ways, this isn't a spell you cast when you merely want to incapacitate your enemy - this is a spell you cast when you want to unleash total chaos.


SPORES OF THE BASIDIROND

Level: 2 (Mycetes-Thrax)
Range: 10' per CL
Duration: Permanent until save (or 1 turn per required save)
Casting time: 1 action
Save: Will vs. spell check

General: The caster releases airborne fungal spores and an alluring fragrance. Everyone who inhales the spores experience powerful hallucinations, which show them an alternate and dangerous world, and which compel them to take action to protect themselves from the nightmarish scenarios the hallucinations place them in. Creatures who inhale the spores can make an immediate saving throw to resist the effects, and may repeat this save on their initiative each round, but are trapped in their hallucination until they succeed. In general, everyone who is affected by the spores at one time sees the same terrible visions (except in the case of a critical success or a result of 34+.)

Any target who rolls a natural 20 on their saving throw is immediately freed from any remaining effects of the spell. Any target who rolls a natural 1 on their saving throw is rendered permanently insane, and continues to perceive their current hallucination as their only reality for the rest of their life.

Truly mindless being and creatures who don't need to breathe are immune to this spell (this includes most plants, fungi, slimes, constructs, and un-dead.) Anyone who is protected by a gas mask or other breathing apparatus is also immune.

Outside of immediate combat, the judge should assume that afflicted creatures succeed 1 saving throw per turn, rather than continuously rolling to determine the exact timing. (However, the judge is encouraged to check once for each target to see if they go permanently insane.)

On a critical success, the range of the spell and the possible number of targets are both doubled. In addition, each target of the spell rolls individually to determine their specific hallucination.

Roll 1d16 to determine the nature of the hallucination (and the target's reaction to it:)

(1) The floor has becoming a shifting desert, swallowing everything like quicksand. (Drop prone and attempt to swim to stay above-ground.)
(2) Every light in the room grows to blinding brilliance. (Close your eyes tight and drop any light source.)
(3) The floor has become a gulping, viscous swamp. (Take off your boots and armor to escape from drowning in the mud.)
(4) Every light in room explodes in flames, everything is burning. (Drop prone and attempt to extinguish the fire, pour any liquids you have onto yourself.)
(5) Your body is melting into puddle. (Attempt to hold your skin in place, press your flesh back into its proper shape.)
(6) The floor is blazing hot, melting into lava. (Hop from foot to foot, jump onto any flat surface above ground level.)
(7) Your body has shrunk to size of an insect or mouse. (Stare up at everything towering overhead, attempt to hide underneath smallest object you can find.)
(8) Your friends are all dead, their corpses fall to floor. (Run away screaming.)
(9) The floor is covered in millions of swarming, biting insects. (Attack the floor with your melee weapons.)
(10) The room is filled to brim with ocean water. (Hold your breath, attempt to swim to the ceiling, climb up any available vertical surface.)
(11) Your friends are all dead, but their lifeless yet animate bodies turn to attack you. (Attack your friends with most powerful attack.)
(12) Your clothes are filled with biting fleas and bedbugs. (Strip off your armor and clothing.)
(13) The ceiling is covered in thousands of swarming, screaming bats. (Attack the ceiling with your missile weapons.)
(14) Your back is covered with blood-drinking leeches. (Tear off your pack and anything worn on your torso and attack them.)
(15) The objects you hold in your hands are turning into biting, constricting snakes. (Drop or throw away what you're holding, leap backward to get away.)
(16) The ceiling is collapsing in a cave-in, debris rains down from overhead. (Drop prone and attempt to take cover underneath any sheltering objects.)

Manifestation: Roll 1d8: (1) shafts of light pour out of the caster's mouth an eyes, illuminating dancing motes in Brownian motion, accompanied by the smell of old books; (2) what looks like snow or white ash falls from the ceiling, accompanied by the smell and crackle of burning wood; (3) fish-like gills open on the caster's neck, revealing mushroom gills in the openings, the smell of saltwater fills the air as the gills appear to breathe; (4) thousands of puffballs sprout from the floor, releasing a miasma of dust and the smell of chalk; (5) the caster breathes billows of smoke from her nose and mouth, the scent of incense mixes with tobacco; (6) a sad, simple melody plays, as on a child's music box, there is a patter of rain, the air fills with mist and petrichor; (7) spiraling clouds of gold flecks waft away from the caster with every movement, and every mind present remembers the scent of of perfume; (8) there's a loud pop and the air fills with brightly colored paper confetti, the sound of party horns, and the aroma of a baking oven.

Misfire: Roll 1d4: (1) The caster is afflicted by 1 random hallucination for 1 round; (2) the caster is afflicted by different hallucinations each round for 1d3+1 rounds; (3) the caster and 1d3+1 of her allies are afflicted 1 random hallucination for 1 round; (4) the caster and 1d3+1 of her allies are afflicted by different hallucinations each round for 1d3+1 rounds.

1    Failure! Lost, misfire, and patron taint.

2-11    Failure, lost.

12-13    Failure, but spell is not lost.

14-15    One target of the caster's choice is afflicted by a single hallucination until it succeeds a saving throw.

16-19    Up to 1d3 targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by a single hallucination until they succeed a saving throw.

20-21    Up to CL number of targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by a single hallucination until they succeed a saving throw.

22-25    Up to CL number of targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by hallucinations, which change each other round until they succeed a saving throw.

26-29    Up to CL number of targets of the caster's choice are afflicted by hallucinations, which change each round until they succeed 1d3 saving throws.

30-31    All possible targets within range are afflicted by hallucinations (unless explicitly excluded by the caster.) Targets experience a single hallucination until they succeed a saving throw. Additionally, up to CL number of targets are afflicted by hallucinations that change each round until they succeed 1d3 saving throws.

32-33    All possible targets within range are afflicted by hallucinations (unless explicitly excluded by the caster.) Hallucinations change each round until they succeed a saving throw. Additionally, up to CL number of targets are afflicted by hallucinations that change each round until they succeed CL number of saving throws.

34+    All possible targets within 30' per CL are afflicted by hallucinations (unless explicitly excluded by the caster.) Each target rolls individually to determine their specific hallucination. Hallucinations change each round until targets succeed CL number of saving throws.

Mechanics I Want to Use - Cover Fire

I wanted a Mighty Deed of Arms to try to recreate a common scene in gunfights (at least on television and in movies) - both sides crouching down behind cover, popping up for a moment to return fire, before immediately ducking down again. Occasionally, someone uses this situation to try to sneak off to a flanking position and hit the other side where they're not shielded. Other times, the exchange of gunfire is covering someone's getaway.

Because guns are so deadly, and no one is really wearing effective armor, the first thing anyone in a gunfight seems to do is look for something to hide behind, and then both sides trade shots while looking for some kind of advantage or way to break the stalemate. (Often the fights seem to end when the heroes on one side manage to take down the villains on the other by hitting the bad guys right as they're emerging to let off another volley.)

So my goal here is to simulate that kind of gunfight. Both sides are hiding and unable to really hit each other until something changes. Both sides are laying down cover fire to prevent the other side from getting the upper hand. When someone is laying down effective cover, it's impossible for anyone on the other side to approach or out-flank them, unless they're very sneaky, or can find an alternate route. The only people in danger of being shot are the ones creating the cover. Cover fire is also not automatically symmetrical. If one side has more shooters, it's easier for them to control the situation. It's also possible to get out-gunned, so if one side has bigger or better guns, they're probably going to dominate the scene.

At the same time, I did try to keep the rules as simple as possible, while still allowing (and encouraging!) the above scenarios to play out. Hopefully what I've written makes intuitive sense when you think about the kind of gunfight it's meant to simulate.

I'm playing in a "weird West" themed game some weekend with Stormlord Publishing, so hopefully I'll get a chance to see how this works out in actual play. The one change I'd consider making would be that even the shooter can only be targeted by a return of cover fire (or perhaps by any Might Deed) rather than allowing them to be targeted by ordinary attacks. I'm concerned that would slow things down too much though, so I'm going to leave the opponent's options more flexible, unless playtesting shows that it doesn't work the way I hope it will as written.


Weapon-Specific Deed - Cover Fire (Firearm)

The shooter protects her allies by using her own gunfire to shield them from attack. Cover fire is typically used when the shooter and her allies are hiding behind cover, and when their enemies are in a similar position. By firing at a single opponent, the shooter can pin down her enemies to their position, prevent return fire from harming her allies, and even cover her friends retreat from the situation, allowing them to either escape or reposition themselves for the next phase of combat.

Unlike other Mighty Deeds, cover fire is not intended to hit an opponent, but to prevent them from moving by hitting close enough to them to force them to protect themselves. As a result, the shooter must hit AC 10 instead of her opponent's actual Armor Class. Larger or smaller opponents might be easier or harder to cover, respectively. Rolls of natural 20 (or other critical hits) deal damage to the target as normal.

When creating cover against an opponent without a missile weapon, the shooter receives a flat +2 bonus to her Deed Die. When attempting cover fire against an opponent who's using a firearm or other missile weapon, the shooter may receive a bonus based on the following factors:

Rate of fire: The shooter receives a +1 bonus to her Deed Die for each missile she can fire per round in excess of her opponent.
Damage die: The shooter receives a +1 bonus to her Deed Die for each 1d of damage her weapon deals in excess of her opponent.

Because the protection offered by cover fire is only effective after the shooter has attempted her Deed, she can choose to apply this bonus to her Initiative instead of her Deed Die.

An armed opponent with a superior weapon can choose either to impose a penalty on the shooter, or to receive a bonus when they return cover fire of their own.

(For example, a shooter armed with a single-shot pistol that deals 1d6 damage gets a +2 bonus to her Deed Die against an unarmed opponent, a +0 bonus against an opponent with the same weapon, and a -4 penalty against an opponent armed with a gun that fires two shots for 1d12 damage each per round. If that opponent chose to return cover fire instead, the shooter would take no penalty, but her opponent would receive a +4 bonus to their Deed Die.)


3 The shooter provides limited cover to her allies. A single targeted opponent cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round.

4 The shooter provides limited cover to her allies. A single targeted opponent cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. Or, the shooter can nullify a single opponent's Cover Fire deed result of 3.

5 The shooter provides complete cover to her allies. Opponents cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. A single ally can retreat this round while retaining this protection. Or, the shooter can nullify a single opponent's Cover Fire deed result of 4 or less.

6 The shooter provides complete cover to her allies. Opponents cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. A single ally can retreat this round while retaining this protection. Or, the shooter can nullify a single opponent's Cover Fire deed result of 5 or less.

7 The shooter provides complete cover to her allies. Opponents cannot advance toward the shooter or her allies, and can make attacks only against the shooter this round. Up to two allies can retreat this round while retaining this protection. Or, the shooter can nullify any number of opponents' Cover Fire deeds whose results total at least 1 less than her Deed result. (So on a result of 7, the shooter could nullify a single result of 6, or two results of 3.)


Notes: Opponents who are not directly targeted by cover fire can still attempt to advance by using the Hide in Shadows skill, or by taking a route that leaves them out of sight behind physical cover the entire time. However, an opponent who is directly targeted by the shooter cannot advance.

The description of this deed assumes that both sides in the combat will begin exchanging cover fire from behind actual protective cover. However, at the judge's discretion, an exposed shooter may be permitted to use this deed, or an exposed opponent may be forced into retreat instead of just being blocked from advancing.

The description also assumes that the shooter will be using a firearm instead of a sling or bow. Skilled NPCs from societies that favor such weapons might be able to use them to lay down cover fire. At the judge's discretion, a player character quest for the ability to provide cover using an arrow or stone.